1xBet review: How slam dunk contests popularized basketball
In the mid-1970s, the American Basketball Association (ABA) was competing with the NBA for popularity in the United States. On January 27, 1976, the first-ever slam dunk contest presented during the ABA’s All-Star Game. That same summer, the league merged with the NBA, and eight years later, the first NBA slam dunk event held during the NBA All-Star Game.
Why was there such a long break? It may seem strange, but dunks once considered provocative and even unsportsmanlike, and completely banned in U.S. college basketball. However, fans want a spectacle: it’s no coincidence that the winner of the 1976 ABA contest, Julius Erving, was one of the most beloved players of his era.
Flight aesthetics: 1980s as the era of Jordan and Wilkins
The popularity of the slam dunks truly exploded in the 1980s. The basketball showdown between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins in 1988 was not just a moment in sports history, but a genuine cultural shift. By that time, both athletes had already won the dunk title once, and all of America followed their rivalry. Jordan triumphed in 1988, while Wilkins became a two-time champion in 1990, though Michael was not in the competition.
Players spent weeks preparing their dunks, and their aerial shots became perfect highlights long before YouTube existed. It was a short, powerful, visually flawless moment that was easy to market on television. The contests helped shape sneaker culture and street fashion, bringing in a massive influx of young audience.
Reboot: Vince Carter and globalization
By the late 1990s, interest in the show had begun to fade – the contest was not held in 1998, and in 1999 the entire All-Star Game was canceled due to the lockout. Established superstars were reluctant to risk their reputations: for example, the legendary Kobe Bryant won his dunk title back in 1997, when he was still a rookie in the league.
However, in 2000 at the Sydney Olympics, Vince Carter delivered his famous dunk over French center Frédéric Weis, a 218 cm tall athlete. It happened just a few months after Carter’s victory in the NBA slam dunk contest and sent a clear message: the heroes of these events could do incredible things in real games as well.
It was a time when satellite television and the early internet were rapidly spreading across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. For teenagers in Beijing or Madrid, dunk contest highlight reels became their gateway into the basketball world.
SMS, social media, and unexpected crisis
From 2008 to 2013, fans began influencing the contest’s results. The winner was determined by SMS voting, and in 2012, Twitter votes were added. The old system of expert judging returned in 2015, but by then, these events had already become perfect content for the social media era.
So why did the famous Shaquille O’Neal call the 2026 contest the worst in history? The reason is that an entire dunk culture has emerged outside of NBA games. Professional players found it difficult to compete on creative grounds.
For a while, the show was saved by spectacle, for example, Blake Griffin jumped over a car, and Aaron Gordon caught a ball dropped by a remote-controlled drone. However, the overall level of preparation became uneven: it’s no coincidence that from 2023 to 2026, Mac McClung, who barely played in the NBA but became famous as a professional dunker, won three years in a row.
Yet as long as the desire to witness the impossible lives on, basketball’s popularity will only continue to grow. Does it really matter that online views now more often go to street-court dunk videos rather than NBA All-Star Weekend performances, if it still helps the game expand its audience? The answer is obvious. That’s why millions of people worldwide will follow the slam dunk contest with 1xBet online.
